On its website, Apple has just confirmed that its co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, has passed away at age 56. After bringing the company back from the brink of bankruptcy and turning it into one of the world's most succesful technology companies, Jobs lost the battle with pancreatic cancer.

I wouldn't be surprised if the "cure" for cancer also turned out to greatly increase longevity.

To the best of my knowledge, dying from "old age" is nowadays essentially about cardiac problems and cancers, so a cure for the main cancers, coupled with cheaper artificial hearts, would certainly improve longevity much.

Now, as you mention, there's life expectancy and healthy life expectancy... If we can keep the body alive but cannot do something against, say, brain ageing, what we'll get in the end is 120 years old living deads who cannot move, eat, or remember their names by themselves. What would be the point ?